Air Canada: encouraging signs for potential government support

After nearly a year of navigating stringent travel restrictions and receiving no sector-specific financial support from the government, Canadian airlines are seeing some encouraging signs emerge in those two areas. However, it still could be some time before major relief materialises.

Since Mar-2020 Canada has mandated a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country, and a range of interprovincial restrictions have also been in place since that time. At the beginning of 2021 the country mandated negative COVID-19 tests for all passengers entering Canada, in addition to the existing quarantine.

More recently, Canada has introduced new requirements that entail testing for passengers upon arrival.

In the meantime, Canada's airlines continue to deal with a state of limbo they've been in since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also agreed to cut service to warm weather destinations to combat the spread of the virus, which, in some ways, is rubbing salt into their wounds.